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The most productive salesperson, as the saying goes, can convince a visitor to buy a product they don’t even need.
Wayne Griffiths can also get closer. The 57-year-old Briton managed to convince the directors of Volkswagen, reluctant to risk, that in the already large team of the group, formed by a dozen other brands of cars, trucks and motorcycles, there was room for one more. , he would possibly be right.
Enter Griffith’s 2018 baby Cupra, which combines a touch of functionality with edgy design and wraps it all in an urban lifestyle badge originating from the trendy Spanish city of Barcelona.
“We’re in favor of a new generation of younger consumers who need to drive any other product of their parents and grandparents,” he told Fortune, “anything that stands out because it’s beautiful, it drives well, and it’s sustainable. “
Creating a new car logo completely from scratch has many drawbacks. Most automakers have been around for decades, while some, like Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz, have more than a century of history. That’s all the time it takes to identify an exclusive identity and position yourself in the market through technical innovation, good luck in motorsport or other competitive differentiators.
Cupra doesn’t have that heritage to depend on to outline what it stands for. But this ability to weave an absolutely new story makes it unlike anything the Volkswagen Group already has in its portfolio. As a challenger, you can take risks that established names may face. t.
“Many other new brands coming to market are taking advantage of the disruption in electrification to prove that you don’t need to have a story to succeed in the future,” Griffiths said.
The gamble turns out to be paying off. Cupra is not only expanding in a saturated European market, but has as its main advantage SEAT S. A. , a subsidiary of the VW Group.
In doing so, Griffiths’ experience earned him a promotion to chief executive of the Spanish company in October 2020, and this week he was crowned Europe’s most successful automotive logo boss via industry-leading publication Automotive News.
However, when Cupra was born, fate was not on his side.
Griffiths soon found himself faced with unforeseen events, such as a global pandemic followed by crippling semiconductor shortages and eventually runaway inflation brought on by a war in Europe, all capable of preventing any momentum from a nascent brand that died in its path.
Finally the stars seem to align in his favor. The new addition to VW generated a staggering 57% increase in car sales in the first part of the year. At the forefront is the Formentor, the first all-CUPRA model not derived from a vehicle with the SEAT logo such as the Ateca.
In total, CUPRA has delivered more than 400,000 cars to consumers since its launch in 2018, a quarter of them in the last six months alone, thanks to the easing of the chip crisis.
On the European continent, which accounts for most of its volume, it has already acquired 1. 5% of the total market, ahead of BMW’s adorable Mini and comfortably above the 1% share controlled through Jeep.
Thanks to Cupra’s immediate success, it may also cross the Atlantic.
“When we started, a lot of people had doubts,” admits Griffiths, proud of his team’s success.
In doing so, Cupra also helped solidify the recent turnaround of parent company SEAT, Volkswagen’s long-struggling Spanish subsidiary. It posted record revenue and profit in the first part of the year, with an operating profit of almost one billion euros compared to the previous year. last year.
“I will be the first to admit that I consider Cupra a horrible concept that would fool no one,” said Matthias Schmidt, an electric vehicle analyst and editor of a monthly report on the European market. “But it seems to fit great success. “
At the biennial IAA motor show in Munich, Griffiths is now set to unveil his DarkRebel sports car, a physical embodiment of where he will take CUPRA in the future.
And the VW Group is developing after surpassing its internal competition thanks to a prestigious new investment in production.
The director relies on Griffiths to build the very important Volkswagen ID. 2. In about two years, the basic electric car of 25,000 euros (about 27,000 dollars) will circulate in the same line as its electric brother, the Cupra Raval, at SEAT. Important plant near Barcelona.
This is helping to secure jobs at the plant for years to come, ensuring that CUPRA’s local Spain remains the second largest car production centre in Europe after Germany.
“We had to fight to get an electric car here in Martorell before the end of this decade. Until then, there’s nothing in the plan,” Griffiths says. And without an electric vehicle, he adds, “you have no future. “”
To build this family of small, affordable electric vehicles, ideal for Europe’s narrow streets and tight spaces, VW is raising nearly double the $5. 5 billion Tesla has invested in its factory outside Berlin.
Around $3 billion is earmarked for the development of vehicles and tools at the Martorell plant, while another $7 billion will be spent on building a new plant on the outskirts of Valencia that will provide the battery cells. The project is supported by EU support provided through Brussels.
“We were fortunate that the COVID pandemic made the European NextGeneration budget available,” he said.
So what exactly is Cupra, a logo that is still largely confined to Europe?
Like Polestar, Volvo’s sporty diversity that has its own autonomous logo promoting electric cars and plug-in hybrids, Cupra is also an offshoot.
It was originally a variety of performance-oriented SEAT cars, designed for cup racing (hence the so-called cup-ra) before becoming independent six years ago.
While some models like the Cupra Leon are still largely derived from their SEAT siblings of the same name, the logo moves more towards autonomous models like the Formentor and Born EV.
Next year will come the modern and competitive Tavascan, which according to Griffiths will incorporate 70,000 more cars a year. This electric SUV coupe sports a more subtle and futuristic design language than the Formentor, marking the second major step in the brand’s development.
Recalling how he convinced VW’s board of directors to go green, the key lay in his ambitious plan to create a challenging new logo with genuine product substance.
“When we showed them the cars we were looking to make, they saw it was something special,” Griffiths said. “I think that’s what they saw: that it wasn’t just a marketing strategy. “
This tale originally appeared in Fortune. com
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